Local numbers down, but annual Stand Down event shows many still on the street and in need of assistance

Halfway into a five-year push to end homelessness among veterans, there’s evidence that efforts by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and others are working — but San Diego veterans still say disabilities and a lack of information keep them on the streets.

Outside the weekend-long veterans assistance event Stand Down for the Homeless, Henry Mervynne sat in his motorized chair, waiting for help to come.

“It would take a miracle,” said Mervynne, 71, a Vietnam veteran who has been homeless on and off for five years. He has no confidence that the VA’s campaign will work for him.

But Hamilton Depass was basically in his shoes in 2011, when he arrived at Stand Down, carting his belongings. These days, 56-year-old Depass lives in a clean, one-bedroom apartment in Linda Vista, thanks to a housing voucher program by the VA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“I was in tears,” the Marine Corps veteran said during an interview at his new apartment. “Just having a bed.”

The number of homeless veterans in San Diego declined to 1,486 people, according to an annual one-night count in January. The prior year, the count was 1,753, and the total in 2011 was 1,649, according to data released by the VA.

At Stand Down, an annual Veterans Village of San Diego event in its 26th year, about 800 veterans had preregistered. But volunteers said there appeared to be fewer clients appearing for assistance than in past years.

By the end of the day, the total count was about 925, down from more than 1,000 clients during the past two years.

The VA has invested billions of tax dollars in its effort to get veterans off the streets by 2015.

In San Diego, that’s meant an infusion of 965 housing vouchers since 2009. These vouchers — which require a veteran to contribute 30 percent of his or her income toward rent, with HUD covering the rest — are like gold because the funding continues indefinitely, basically for a vet’s life.

On Thursday, VA officials announced that $3 million of $300 million in national grants will come to San Diego social service agencies this year.

This Supportive Services for Veteran Families program can offer temporary financial help with rent, utility bills, security deposits and moving costs. The aim is to keep veterans from landing on the streets in the first place. Prevention programs are fairly new in San Diego, only up and running since 2011, a VA official said.

It’s been a big year for homeless programs at the city level in San Diego, as well.

The city opened a long-promised 223-bed service center for the chronically homeless.

The mayor and City Council also agreed to fund two shelter tents, one with 150 beds for veterans only, for nearly the entire year. People in these tents are still counted as homeless, but they are protected from the elements and have closer access to social service programs that might help.

Still, these numbers tell a story that’s not being felt by everyone on the ground.